


Hobby Hunt

by nerdistheword



Category: Carry On Series - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: M/M, baz is a lil shit, gardener!simon, he tries a bunch of stuff, im so glad he has a therapist tbh, simon is a precious boy and deserves happiness, simon snow needs a hobbie, supportive penny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-15
Updated: 2019-01-15
Packaged: 2019-10-10 12:34:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17425988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdistheword/pseuds/nerdistheword
Summary: Simon needs something to occupy his free time. He isn’t the Chosen One anymore, so there aren’t any quests or missions he has to do.Honestly, Simon doesn’t have any idea what to do. So, he’s tried a little bit of everything.





	Hobby Hunt

Simon needs something to occupy his free time. He isn’t the Chosen One anymore, so there aren’t any quests or missions he has to do.

He spends a lot of time with Penny, obviously. Being her best friend and roommate meant that they’re always meeting up for lunch, having movie nights, doing chores together around the flat.

And then there’s Baz, who, true to his word, darkens their doorstep night and day. And don’t get it wrong, Simon loves spending time with Baz. Baz is everything. Sometimes when Baz isn’t around, Simon feels like someone injected cold itself into his chest. He feels hollow and brittle.

Simon has Baz and Penny and his classes and his job but between all that, he doesn’t have anything that’s just for him, just for fun, just to be himself. His therapist says he needs a hobby. Something he does for himself that doesn’t really have a purpose but is enjoyable. Something he does for what she calls "For Simon time."

Penny suggested joining a book club or doing origami. Baz mentioned knitting, but Simon wasn’t sure if he was being sarcastic or not.

Honestly, Simon doesn’t have any idea what to do. So, he’s tried a little bit of everything.

First he attempted baking. He kept spilling and dripping and accidentally flinging things across the kitchen, and eventually, Penny just kicked him out and banned him from making baked goods for a while.

She sounded a lot like her mother when she said, “Simon, please pick a less accident-prone and messy activity.”

The next day he tried yoga, because he heard it was relaxing and healthy, and Penny said Agatha does it sometimes. His therapist approved—something about working out emotions through constructive physical activity—and so Simon moved the living room furniture aside and used the squishy bathroom mat as his yoga mat. Five minutes in and he realized that attempting downward dog and crane pose was harder than he anticipated with wings and a tail he can’t really control. He almost knocked over Penny's crystal ball, and decided that was not a chance he wanted to take again.

He tried candle making and that ended in a large bubble-related failure (all that wax was really hard to get out of his hair). Dancing led to a humiliating breakdancing battle in the park, which he lost (Baz refuses to let that one die), and when he did eventually join a book club at Penny’s insistence that he at least try, all the other members got pissed at him for getting food on his copy of _Frankenstein._ Also, snacks weren’t allowed at the meetings.

———————————

About a week into his explorations, Simon is at Baz’s flat when he notices his violin just sitting in its case on the table. Simon jumps at the flicker of an idea in his mind.

“Baz! Teach me how to play the violin!” He says, shaking Baz’s shoulder in desperation. “You’re good at it! You can teach me right?”

Naturally, Baz laughs for a solid thirty seconds before he answers, standing and walking into his kitchen to make tea. Because, really? _Him_ teach _Simon Snow_ how to play an instrument? Baz is not known for his patience. And Simon is not known for…listening.

“Snow, you can’t even read music.” Baz tells him, still laughing a little bit.

“So we could start there. Please teach me, Baz. I’ve run out of hobby ideas.” Simon begs, pouting at Baz just the tiniest bit to help sway him.

Baz comes closer and takes Simon by the shoulders. He locks their gazes, amused but serious. “Simon, you should find something that _you_ want to do because it makes _you_ happy. Don’t just randomly pick something because I happen to be sufficient at it.”

“All right.” Simon nods and sinks down onto Baz’s couch. “I’ll keep looking.”

Baz sits down beside him with a cup of tea and a smug grin. “And if your musical instrument skills are anything like your breakdancing ones, I would suggest staying away from it.”

Simon thumps him over the head with a pillow.

———————————

It comes to Simon a week later. He’s tried kickboxing, pottery-making, and even an ill-advised attempt at knitting. (Baz and Penny found Simon being helplessly tangled in yarn absolutely hilarious, to say the least.)

He’s tried so many things, but none of them have felt right. Nothing has clicked with him, given him a feeling of gratification that his therapist said he should feel.

Inspiration hits Simon when he’s walking home from class and he passes a flower shop. There’s a leafy potted plant in the window, a tag sticking out of it that reads “basil” and it catches Simon’s eye because, well, Baz. You can’t have a boyfriend named after a leaf and not appreciate the plant when you come past it.

He finds himself going inside and wandering around the tables and shelves of plants. Climbing, flowering, blooming, aromatic plants flood his senses and in a moment of Simon-brand impulsivity, he picks a few plants (one of them is a consciously chosen basil plant), a couple seed packs, a few pots and a bag of potting soil. He goes home with his arms full of gardening supplies, and spends the next few hours hard at work.

He researches the needs of every plant he bought, and waters and prunes accordingly. He plants seeds in pots and set them up on the window ledge. He names every single plant. He names the little pot of fuzzy, light green lamb's ear after Ebb. The tough succulent with purple tips is Penny, and the elegant pink orchid is for Agatha. And of course the basil is Baz.

And his mind is at peace while he works. It's not just not thinking about things, pushing them down or away. It's doing something with a clear goal, with tangible results. Even his subconscious doesn't bother him while he measures dirt into pots and waters his new leafy companions. It's like, instead of forcing his mind to be blank, his thoughts are just gently washed away by the calming actions.

A plant is positioned in nearly every window of the flat. The ones that need to grow from sprouts or seedlings are put outside. He labels each with his indecipherable handwriting scribbled onto labels.

When Penny comes home, she lets Simon drag her excitedly around the flat, showing her every plant and talking about them. She sees a lightness in his eyes she hasn't seen for a while, and asks him questions to keep him talking, to keep enjoying her best friend being so happy.

"And this one will grow vines when it gets bigger, and Penny the Succulent will get huge eventually and have spikes! And I planted some daises in pots out on the window ledge, and I was thinking maybe we could get one of those, you know, the longer box thingies? That hang off the window in nice houses?"

"A flowerbox?" Penny provides amusedly, stroking the soft leaves of Ebb the Lamb's Ear.

"Yeah, a flowerbox. What do you think?"

Penny smiles at him, at how he's smiling so much his cheeks are pushed up into his eyes. A little bit of dirt is smudged on one, and there's more smeared across his forehead.

"I think it's wonderful." She says, and she means it. When Simon goes to bed, telling Baz over the phone about his new hobby, Penny is still smiling. She spells away some dirt trailed on the floor and sits on the couch, looking fondly at the little plant Simon gave her name. _He found it, she thinks._

When Simon is in bed that night, be breathes deeply as his eyes close. He knows he's found it.


End file.
